Sitting Down to Shower

"Sean," I told him in earnest on the phone, "we are senior citizens and both of us need to sit down in the shower. Hubby doesn't like me bossing him around, so when you come I just know that you can do wonders, because he doesn't want me bossing him around. I think he will listen to you."

Knight Sean (Occupational Therapist) drove up in our circular driveway to our door in his Hummer-looking large black four-door jeep. When Sean came in the door, Sean told hubby, "Mr. Johnson, I am here to have you take a shower." With one command at a time, Sean skillfully broke down the process and hubby took a sit-down shower! He raised the sturdy shower bench I couldn't raise and was using in the yard for weeding.  He remarked that the port-a-potty we have would also work in the shower.

Solution One. Sean told me to get grab bars installed for the shower. I once had bought them when the shower was retiled by homeowners insurance for a mold problem we had maybe six years ago before dementia entered our household, However, the construction crew did not install them and I had taken them back. I surmised that the grab bars were not part of the original construction and not needed in the repair. Bummer.

Twice as good a deal as six months ago

I have just paid off our interest-free six month Home Depot credit card balance and now I could take longer for the interest free loan.  So I went online and chatted with Tiffany to see if I could get grab bars installed.

Tiffany: Welcome to the Home Depot! My name is Tiffany and I am a Bath Product Specialist. How may I assist you today?

Carol: I need a grab bar installed in our shower.

Tiffany: Hello, Carol.

Tiffany: In regards to installation/remodeling, please contact our At-Home Services at 1-888-480-9500, press "1", and then enter the three-digit code "267." You will be asked to put in your zip code and then will be connected with a representative who may better assist you with your installation/remodeling questions and concerns.

Carol: Thanks.

When I called, I found out that they sell grab bars, but do not install them.

. . . But, Home Depot doesn't do grab bars!

So I decided to still try to obey the knight with the four-door black jeep and see about getting grab bars installed from Lowes. Lowes also does not install grab bars, but they did have something that might work--Safe-er-Grip, Balance Assist for Shower or Tub. The Lowes clerk knew what I was talking about, as his own mother had fallen and had to have surgery for a broken hip and with the anesthesia her dementia had gone downhill. If hubby can avoid falling, he can avoid the possibility of anesthesia for surgery and the accompanying decline of dementia following anesthesia. If I can avoid falling as I have done twice recently, I can continue to take care of my hubby at home. Physical therapist Susann talked me through the installation of the two Balance Asists and the best use of them--for balance, not for pulling oneself up. One fell down that first night, however.

Two large bricks covered by a rug
and Safe-er-Grip on toilet

Solution Two. I put two 8 inch by 8 inch by 16 inch bricks on top of each other between the shower and the toilet with a rug on top of them. Hubby has a counter on his right and the bricks on the left to get off the toilet. Those bricks now hold his soap and shampoo for a sit-down shower. But guess what! He moves the soap dish to where it was at the back of the shower and stands to take his shower. You know what they say—you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.

Just as Physical Therapist Susann left, Occupational Therapist Sean came. The timing corresponded with another event.  Sally and I were having lunch with another friend. Jake came over to have his lunch with my husband and Susann left and Sean was there with Sally and my Alzheimer's husbands.

The two balance assists in the shower

Sean liked the two brick idea between the toilet and shower. Sean asked if they would be okay when he left and I told him the two Alzheimer’s buddys would be fine. The two men love being together and are so funny together. When hubby sat and waited for me at Best Buy recently, he said to me that it felt strange not to have Jake by his side. These men have a unique bond and fantasy life about things they have done together. When Sally and I came home from our lunch date, the hubbies were indeed happy and had planned the four of us would go to dinner and we did that. We women can’t do all the planning!

So it has been up to me to persuade hubby with our new sit-down shower arrangement. Getting him to shave is easier because he can feel his beard. He thinks he showered yesterday, when he hasn't. Alzheimer's patients need a routine and we just have to manage somehow so he can remain in our home without falling and with strengthened muscles.

Solution Three. Now hubby had injured his knee taking socks off to put in the hamper. This is how the last hospital trip happened. I got him new socks that are easier to take off. Hubby is not using this walker now, but I put the hamper between the legs of that walker so he can carefully balance himself as he takes off his socks. I notice he does hold those handles on the walker when he uses the laundry hamper.


Laundry basket in walker



Sitting down in the shower is not an embedded solution yet, as hubby  takes a stand-up shower in his sit-down shower. Calling Knight Sean! Need another lesson in sit-down showers! And hey, Home Depot and Lowes, with our aging population we need you to install those grab bars.

Gardening Report on The House That Cleans Itself

It has been two months--TWO MONTHS--since I reported to you on this project and signed off as an "amateur watta-be gardener". I have bravely battled  AREA # 8 and AREA #9 (the backyard) with my never-ending struggle with weeds that I am sure will continue over the summer and into the fall. Weeds are like paper clutter, don't ya think? The broken weed killer spray bottle was returned to Home Depot and exchanged for a new one that works.

I have noticed that one plant flourishes and the same plant does not, thinking I have one green thumb and on the opposite hand a non-green thumb. 

Why is the right pot flower better?

One bush thrives and a nearby one is turning brown maybe due to the watta-be gardener's over-zealous use of the weed killer.

Evergreen

Turning brown

I have encountered the possibility of snakes, poison oak and poison ivy in the backyard. A snake-looking parasite is growing along a branch and I clipped it several places but it isn't seeming to die.

Parasite on branch

Hubby doesn't want his wife to mow lawns and wonderfully a volunteer Wayne has come forward to mow our lawns for free when he is in the neighborhood mowing someone else's yard for pay. I am so appreciative and have found myself cutting branches so his mowing will be easier.


What I did backing up the gas guzzler



Repaired

Wayne also repaired the fence gate that I had backed into and put in a gate to our neighbor's back yard so that Kenny can easily come to our house from where he lives.  Thanks ever so much Wayne! It takes a village to be an Alzheimer's caregiver!

I just asked and a thoughtful friend of a backyard neighbor, Angel, burned the trash pile and it is slowly being converted into regular grass in the back yard. Burn piles will be a thing of the past as I am putting yard banches and clippings out by the curb on Saturdays and one really needs a permit to burn in the country I am told.


Burn pile



Grass growing on old burn pile

I made a list for our outdoors of

what I can do and have started:

1. Put clippings by the street to be picked up on several Saturdays.

2. Weed by the backyard deck.

Old shower stool helps me sit to weed.

3. Put an outdoor rug on that deck. (This rug was used with our popup camper that we no longer own.)

4. Go to Fabric Warehouse to get ideas for uphostery of 4 outdoor chairs used on the deck. They will need to be sprayed black again.

5. Straighten up the potting area and get realistic about my gardening capabilities. Get rid of those extra pots--almost like keeping magazines or fabric I never will quilt with!
  

6. Offered extra chainlink fence material to Sally and Jake for their new dog. Their son came and picked it up.

7. Enjoy my herb garden and find recipes where I can use those fresh herbs.

8.  Make road to the back of the property look neater and keep it maintained.

9. Add items to future yard sale or donate them.  

Problems to live with or wait to solve:

Two-bin compost piles
with cow pasture of neighbors in back

How do I maintain the two-bin compost pile above  that my husband labored at before his Alzheimer's dampened his motivation?  

Small oak trees (that can become large oak trees) seem to want to come forth on fence lines. One oak tree took over an orange tree and both seem to want the same space with the oak tree winning.

I need to hire or enlist someone to do something about the walls stained by my husband's forgetting to turn off the sprinkler all night. (We have iron in our well water used on the garden.)

The metal shed is continuing the go down hill and our dog barks at something maybe living in there.



Houses riding lawn mover and
some other creature--maybe a stray cat



There are two small fountains to get up and running--one in the front yard by the chimney and one in the backyard outside the deck. I bought a fountain pump for one of them that I think needs replacing.

Will continue to work on Areas #8 and #9.  

Any suggestions or volunteers?

Struggling gardener here, 

Carol

Repairs for The House That Cleans Itself

Except for mowing the lawn, hubby can bark orders to get someone out to fix things at the house with his Alzheimer's impatience. And so it was we had our garage door fixed twice recently, and we are still not happy with the expensive repair that didn't fix the problem. I now push the button to bring the garage door down, and then have to push it again quickly so it will not open immediately. I have to do this when I come home in the garage and when I leave with the garage door remote control. One feels that the garage door people just want our money for a whole new door.

In 2000  when we first married our tastes in shopping were so different. This was before the Alzheimer's entered our home, Home Depot and Lowe's used to be my husband's favorite stores. He was always buying tools and using tools. We both had more income then and could buy more. I went along with all the fine things he did for the house those first years because we were fixing our retirement home. He put up fences, installed a doggy door in the workshop, made a compost pile, made a wonderful mail box stand on our property for four homes here in the country, put up shelves for me, painted rooms, and made a workshop for himself that carpenters who have worked here since envy. But Home Depot or Lowe's was never my favorite place to shop. I liked places like second hand shops, antique shops and at times the Mall.

Home Depot purchases
for repairs

Hubby no longer really shops. He will stay in the car or sit in the store while I shop. But if I was to be serious about The House That Cleans Itself and the suggestions in the book, I needed  repairs and would have to go to those places he used to love. We hadn't been charging at Home Depot, but one can spend $300 for supplies and pay $50 for them over six months without being charged interest. So I actually stepped out of my comfort zone and shopped at Home Depot and racked up $300 in supplies. And then I had to take back items because I am not an experienced Home Depot or Lowe's customer or handiperson for that matter. The sink faucet was wrong. New lights didn't need to be replaced over the vanity, but our clever carpenter just went into my husband's workshop for a quick fix and was able to put in two sockets for my electric curlers and hair dryer. I took back the other light fixture with only one plug to Lowe's and got a refund. 

Hidden now behind existing light

I didn't realize this solution was possible, but our carpenter saved us money. Now I can plug in both the hair curlers and hair dryer and fix my hair at the vanity in the bedroom. Actually all I have to do is turn the light switch on and light, hair dryer can be turned on and curlers are all on. I use hair spray at this station rather than in the bathroom where I put in my new hearing aids. (I do not need hair spray on the hearing aids.)  I love this vanity for makeup and hair now! Guests do not see all of my hair and makeup stuff in the second bathroom they use. My station in the master bedroom is now complete.

The carpenter then installed new mini-blinds in the living room. The old ones were essentially broken.

You can hardly see them, but they are there.

The carpenter put up a new shelf in den to get that power strip off of the desk. One of the women in the Facebook private group for The House That Cleans Itself had a yard sale and ended up giving me this shelf for my devotional area. Before this shelf, chords competed with my Bible study area.

Power strip up and away

I love how my Nook and Kindle just look like books, but are getting charged in the meanwhile. It was essential that I have a separate area for my devotions, or I would get distracted by the computer or the TV. Now Mrs. Clark, esteemed author of The House That Cleans Itself, would camouflage those chords, but I can't do it all, folks, and this shelf works for me in our den.

Finally, the deck in the back yard was stained. Who was the carpenter for repairs that my husband used to do? Jake's son who learned from his dad and he did a great job! Jake helped his son while hubby just watched TV and I was gone. How nice to come home to a finished vanity area in the master bedroom and a finished devotional area and the other repairs!

Not afraid of Home Depot any more, I got plants and soil for the front yard at Home Depot. Yard work is coming my way for Area # 8 and perhaps before the guest bedroom Area # 7 is fully finished. Our climate is beautiful this winter. Who wouldn't want to garden in pleasant weather and catch the weeds before the April showers come!

Sigh! My tastes in shopping are now changing!